The department's agencies include the State Archives, the Division of Elections, the Division of Programs, the Business Action Center, the Red Tape Review commission, the Council on the Arts, the historical Commission, the Cultural Based Initiatives, the Center for Hispanic Research and Development, the Office for Planning Advocacy and the State Planning Commission. The Secretary of Higher Education, the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, the State Library and the Sports and Exposition Authority are in but not of the department.

The New Jersey Division of Archives and Records Management, sometimes referred to simply as the "State Archives", is the repository for all vital statistics, including marriage and divorce records and birth certificates, and also maintains a separate set of files for the registry of wills. The Secretary of State oversees the Division of Tourism which advertises and promotes New Jersey as a premier travel destination and the Division of Elections, and sets all tourism and election policy.

The Secretary is the Chief Elections Officer of New Jersey. Prior to April 1, 2008, the electoral division was under the New Jersey Attorney General.[1] The Secretary of State is also the chair of the board of State Canvasser, which certifies election results for federal and state office elections and public questions.[2]

In New Jersey, the Secretary of State serves a term of office concurrent with that of the Governor.[3] Although the conventional wisdom is that the Secretary of State cannot be removed from office except "for cause" by the Governor or by way of legislative impeachment,[4] a recent law review article argues that the Governor does not have the authority to remove the Secretary of State "for cause,"[5] and this issue has not been tested.

1.
New Jersey
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New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the statistical areas of New York City. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, in the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. New Jersey was the site of decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities such as Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa. The pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains, around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers that reached New Jersey. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as rivers, swamps. New Jersey was originally settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact, scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land that is now New Jersey. The Lenape society was divided into clans that were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign, Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf and they first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade. The Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey, the Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which eventually became the Bergen, peter Minuits purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and it was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton, the area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the states inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants

2.
Volunteering
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Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial gain to benefit another person, group or organization. Volunteering is also renowned for skill development and is intended to promote goodness or to improve human quality of life. Volunteering may have benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or community served. It is also intended to make contacts for possible employment, many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on a basis, such as in response to a natural disaster. The verb was first recorded in 1755 and it was derived from the noun volunteer, in C.1600, one who offers himself for military service, from the Middle French voluntaire. In the non-military sense, the word was first recorded during the 1630s, the word volunteering has more recent usage—still predominantly military—coinciding with the phrase community service. In a military context, an army is a military body whose soldiers chose to enter service. Such volunteers do not work for free and are given regular pay, during this time, America experienced the Great Awakening. People became aware of the disadvantaged and realized the cause for movement against slavery, younger people started helping the needy in their communities. In 1851, the first YMCA in the United States was started, followed seven years later by the first YWCA. During the American Civil War, women volunteered their time to sew supplies for the soldiers and the Angel of the Battlefield Clara Barton and a team of volunteers began providing aid to servicemen. Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and began mobilizing volunteers for disaster relief operations, the Salvation Army is one of the oldest and largest organizations working for disadvantaged people. Though it is a charity organization, it has organized a number of volunteering programs since its inception, prior to the 19th century, few formal charitable organizations existed to assist people in need. The Great Depression saw one of the first large-scale, nationwide efforts to coordinate volunteering for a specific need, after World War II, people shifted the focus of their altruistic passions to other areas, including helping the poor and volunteering overseas. A major development was the Peace Corps in the United States in 1960, when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty in 1964, volunteer opportunities started to expand and continued into the next few decades. The process for finding volunteer work became more formalized, with more volunteer centers forming and new ways to find work appearing on the World Wide Web. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, about 64.5 million Americans, or 26.5 percent of the adult population and this calculates at about 125–150 hours per year or 3 hours per week at a rate of $22 per hour

3.
Marriage
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The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is principally an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity, when defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, whom they marry may be influenced by socially determined rules of incest, prescriptive marriage rules, parental choice and individual desire. In some areas of the world, arranged marriage, child marriage, polygamy, conversely, such practices may be outlawed and penalized in parts of the world out of concerns for womens rights and because of international law. These trends coincide with the human rights movement. Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, an authority, a tribal group. It is often viewed as a contract, Marriages can be performed in a secular civil ceremony or in a religious setting via a wedding ceremony. The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved, and any offspring they may produce, some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment. In some areas, child marriages and polygamy may occur in spite of laws against the practice. For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005 and these changes have occurred primarily in Western countries. The word marriage derives from Middle English mariage, which first appears in 1250–1300 CE and this in turn is derived from Old French, marier, and ultimately Latin, marītāre, meaning to provide with a husband or wife and marītāri meaning to get married. The adjective marīt-us -a, -um meaning matrimonial or nuptial could also be used in the form as a noun for husband. Anthropologists have proposed several competing definitions of marriage in an attempt to encompass the wide variety of marital practices observed across cultures, even within Western culture, definitions of marriage have careened from one extreme to another and everywhere in between. The anthropological handbook Notes and Queries defined marriage as a union between a man and a such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners. In recognition of a practice by the Nuer people of Sudan allowing women to act as a husband in certain circumstances, Kathleen Gough suggested modifying this to a woman, none of these men had legal rights to the womans child. Economic anthropologist Duran Bell has criticized the definition on the basis that some societies do not require marriage for legitimacy. He argued that a definition of marriage is circular in societies where illegitimacy has no other legal or social implications for a child other than the mother being unmarried. In 1955 article in Man, Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures and he offered a list of ten rights associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children, with specific rights differing across cultures

4.
Divorce
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Divorce should not be confused with annulment, which declares the marriage null and void, with legal separation or de jure separation or with de facto separation. Reasons for divorce vary, from sexual incompatibility or lack of independence for one or both spouses to a personality clash, the only countries that do not allow divorce are the Philippines, the Vatican City and the British Crown Dependency of Sark. The Vatican City is a state, which has no procedure for divorce. Countries that have relatively recently legalized divorce are Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Andorra, Ireland, Chile, grounds for divorce vary widely from country to country. Marriage may be seen as a contract, a status, or a combination of these, where it is seen as a contract, the refusal or inability of one spouse to perform the obligations stipulated in the contract may constitute a ground for divorce for the other spouse. In contrast, in countries, divorce is purely no fault. Many jurisdictions offer both the option of a no fault divorce as well as an at fault divorce and this is the case, for example, in many US states. Though divorce laws vary between jurisdictions, there are two approaches to divorce, fault based and no-fault based. In some jurisdictions one spouse may be forced to pay the fees of another spouse. Laws vary as to the period before a divorce is effective. However, issues of division of property are determined by the law of the jurisdiction in which the property is located. In Europe, divorce laws differ from country to country, reflecting differing legal and cultural traditions, in some countries, particularly in some former communist countries, divorce can be obtained only on one single general ground of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. Yet, what such a breakdown of the marriage is interpreted very differently from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Separation constitutes a ground of divorce in some European countries. g. in the laws of Latvia. Divorce laws are not static, they often change reflecting evolving social norms of societies, some countries have completely overhauled their divorce laws, such as Spain in 2005, and Portugal in 2008. A new divorce law also came into force in September 2007 in Belgium, bulgaria also modified its divorce regulations in 2009. e. The negotiations with the participation of an advocate or agreement made before the registrar of Public Registry Office, Austria, instead, is a European country where the divorce law still remains conservative. The liberalization of laws is not without opposition, particularly in the United States

5.
Birth certificate
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A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term birth certificate can refer to either the document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth. Depending on the jurisdiction, a record of birth might or might not contain verification of the event by such as a midwife or doctor, the documentation of births is a practice widely held throughout human civilization, especially in China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Persia. The original purpose of statistics was for tax purposes and for the determination of available military manpower. Births were initially registered with churches, who maintained registers of births and this practice continued into the 19th century. The compulsory registration of births with governmental agencies is a practice originated in the United Kingdom in 1853. The United States did not get a system until 1902. Most countries have statutes and laws that regulate the registration of births, the actual record of birth is stored with a government agency. That agency will issue certified copies or representations of the birth record upon request. The certification is signed and/or sealed by the registrar or other custodian of birth records, despite 191 countries ratifying the Convention, the births of millions of children worldwide go unregistered. This phenomenon disproportionately impacts indigenous populations and even in developed countries, contributes to difficulties in fully accessing civic rights. Retrospective registration may be necessary where there is a backlog of children whose births have gone unregistered, in Senegal, the government is facilitating retrospective registration through free local court hearings and the number of unregistered children has fallen considerably as a result. In Sierra Leone, the government gave the National Office of Births and Deaths special permission to issue birth certificates to children over seven, in Bolivia, there was a successful three-year amnesty for the free registration of young people aged between 12 and 18. Statelessness, or the lack of nationality, impacts the daily lives of some 11-12 million people around the world. Perhaps those who suffer most are stateless infants, children, though born and raised in their parents’ country of habitual residence, they lack formal recognition of their existence. States and territories of Australia are responsible for the issuance of certificates, through agencies generally titled Registry of Births Deaths. Initially registering a birth is done by a hospital through a Birth Registration Statement or similar, home births are permitted, but a statement is required from a registered midwife, doctor or 2 other witnesses other than the parents. Unplanned births require in some states that the baby be taken to a hospital within 24 hours, once registered, a separate application can be made for a birth certificate, generally at a cost

6.
Woodrow Wilson
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Thomas Woodrow Wilson was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. Born in Staunton, Virginia, he spent his years in Augusta, Georgia and Columbia. In 1910, he was the New Jersey Democratic Partys gubernatorial candidate and was elected the 34th Governor of New Jersey, while in office, Wilson reintroduced the spoken State of the Union, which had been out of use since 1801. Leading the Congress that was now in Democratic hands, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. The Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, through passage of the Adamson Act that imposed an 8-hour workday for railroads, he averted a railroad strike and an ensuing economic crisis. Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Wilson maintained a policy of neutrality, Wilson faced former New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes in the presidential election of 1916. By a narrow margin, he became the first Democrat since Andrew Jackson elected to two consecutive terms, Wilsons second term was dominated by American entry into World War I. In April 1917, when Germany had resumed unrestricted submarine warfare and sent the Zimmermann Telegram, the United States conducted military operations alongside the Allies, although without a formal alliance. During the war, Wilson focused on diplomacy and financial considerations, leaving military strategy to the generals, loaning billions of dollars to Britain, France, and other Allies, the United States aided their finance of the war effort. On the home front, he raised taxes, borrowing billions of dollars through the publics purchase of Liberty Bonds. In his 1915 State of the Union Address, Wilson asked Congress for what became the Espionage Act of 1917, the crackdown was intensified by his Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to include expulsion of non-citizen radicals during the First Red Scare of 1919–1920. Wilson staffed his government with Southern Democrats who implemented racial segregation at the Treasury, Navy and he gave department heads greater autonomy in their management. Following his return from Europe, Wilson embarked on a tour in 1919 to campaign for the treaty. The treaty was met with concern by Senate Republicans, and Wilson rejected a compromise effort led by Henry Cabot Lodge. Due to his stroke, Wilson secluded himself in the White House, disability having diminished his power, forming a strategy for re-election, Wilson deadlocked the 1920 Democratic National Convention, but his bid for a third-term nomination was overlooked. Wilson was a devoted Presbyterian and Georgist, and he infused his views of morality into his domestic and he appointed several well known radically progressive single taxers to prominent positions in his administration. His ideology of internationalism is now referred to as Wilsonian, an activist foreign policy calling on the nation to promote global democracy and he was the third of four children of Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Jessie Janet Woodrow. Wilsons paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland and his mother was born in Carlisle, England, the daughter of Rev. Dr. Thomas Woodrow from Paisley, Scotland, and Marion Williamson from Glasgow

7.
Chris Christie
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Christopher James Chris Christie is an American politician and attorney. He is a member of the Republican Party and has been the 55th Governor of New Jersey since January 2010 and his second and final term ends on January 16,2018. Born in Newark, Christie volunteered for Thomas Keans gubernatorial campaign at age 15, after graduating in 1984 from the University of Delaware, he earned a J. D. at Seton Hall. He practiced law from 1987 to 2002 and he was elected county freeholder for Morris County, serving from 1995 to 1998. By 2002, he had campaigned for Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, the latter appointed him U. S. Attorney for New Jersey, a position he held from 2002 to 2008. Christie won the 2009 Republican primary for Governor of New Jersey, after the start of his second term as governor, Christies standing was damaged by the Fort Lee lane closure scandal. By January 2017, this had slipped to just 17%, Christie chaired the Republican Governors Association for the 2014 election cycle. On June 30,2015, he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election and he suspended his candidacy on February 10,2016 and soon after endorsed Donald Trump, who named him head of his transition planning team. He was again shortlisted for nominee but for Donald Trumps running mate, soon after the election Christie was replaced by Mike Pence, and three of his close associates were removed from the transition team. In March 2017 it was announced Christie was to chair the Trump administrations Opioid, Christie was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Sondra A. a telephone receptionist, and Wilbur James Bill Christie, a certified public accountant. His mother was of Italian ancestry, and father is of German, Scottish, Christies family moved to Livingston, New Jersey, after the 1967 Newark riots, and Christie lived there until he graduated from Livingston High School in 1980. At Livingston High School, Christie served as president and played catcher for the baseball team. Christies father and mother were Republican and Democratic, respectively, Christie had become interested in Kean after the politician, then a state legislator, spoke to Christies junior high school class. Christie graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1984 and he was admitted to the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Bar of the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, in December 1987. Later in life, he was awarded doctorate degrees by Rutgers University. In 1986, Christie married Mary Pat Foster, a student at the University of Delaware. After marrying, they shared an apartment in Summit, New Jersey. Mary Pat Christie pursued a career in investment banking and eventually worked at the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, the family resides in Mendham Township

8.
Phil Murphy
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Philip D. Murphy, is an American financier, diplomat, and politician who is a Democratic Party candidate in the 2017 New Jersey gubernatorial race. While planning to run for governor, Murphy launched New Way for New Jersey, Murphy was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013. There he dealt with fallout from the United States diplomatic cables leak matter and he also served as finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, in the mid-late 2000s, under Howard Dean. Murphy had a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, during which he held several positions and accumulated considerable wealth. He is additionally involved in civic organizations and philanthropic pursuits. Phil Murphy was born and raised in the Boston metropolitan area and he grew up in a family that he later said was middle class on a good day. The family was of Irish American heritage, with Phil being third generation, by his recollection his mother, a secretary, and father, a high-school dropout who took any job he could, lived paycheck to paycheck. The young Phil engaged in employment as a dishwasher at the age of 13 years in order to augment the family income. Both of his parents were supporters of John F. Kennedy. Murphy played soccer as a boy, an interest that would stay with him in later life, the Murphy mother believed strongly in the importance of education and Phil and his three older siblings would all earn college degrees. By his later description, Murphy put himself through college with student loans. He attended Harvard University, where he was president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, however he changed directions and graduated in 1979 with an A. B. degree in Economics. He then attended, and received an M. B. A. in 1983 from, Murphy first met his future wife, Tammy Snyder, in 1987 when they both worked at Goldman Sachs, but Murphy did not ask her for a date for another seven years. When he finally did, things progressed quickly, they became engaged eighteen days later and they were married six months. Murphy and his wife have four children, three sons and a daughter and they have lived in Monmouth County in New Jersey. The children have been educated at Rumson Country Day School and the Philips Academy, Tammy Snyder Murphy, a native of the Commonwealth of Virginia, has held a variety of financial, civic, and political positions as well as having been a homemaker. Murphy began his career with a summer internship at Goldman Sachs in 1982. He was then hired after graduating in 1983, Murphy was also active in the Atlantik-Brücke organization, including co-founding its International Advisor Council

9.
Byron Mallott
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Mallott is an American politician and business executive from the state of Alaska. Mallott is an Alaska Native leader of Tlingit heritage, Mallott was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Alaska in 2014, until he agreed to merge his campaign with that of Independent candidate Bill Walker and become Walkers running mate. Walker and Mallott won the election and were sworn in on December 1,2014, Mallott was born on April 6,1943 in Yakutat, Territory of Alaska to J. B. and Emma Mallott. His father established a store in a spare room of the family home in 1946. Byron spent most of his living in Yakutat. He graduated from Sheldon Jackson High School and studied for years at Western Washington State College. His political career began unexpectedly in 1965 and his father, who served as Yakutats mayor for the vast majority of the positions existence, died. He left college and returned to Yakutat, running to replace him and he was 22 years old at the time. He left office before the expiration of his term, taking a job in the office of Governor Bill Egan towards the end of Egans first governorship and his job in the governors office was focused on local government affairs, one of the few constitutionally mandated executive functions in Alaska. After Egan was defeated for re-election by Walter Hickel in 1966, Mallott returned to Yakutat and he also served as a special assistant to U. S. Senator Mike Gravel during the part of Gravels first term. After Egan was elected back to the governorship in 1970, Mallott went back to work in his office in 1971 and this office was absorbed into the Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs when the legislature created the department the following year. Mallott became the departments first commissioner, serving until 1974, during the 1970s, Mallott became a director of the newly formed Sealaska Corporation, eventually serving as chairman of the board, as well as president and CEO of the corporation. He retired from Sealaska as CEO in 1992, Mallott became the executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation in 1995. He had previously served on the board for eight years. He had also established a permanent fund for Sealaska shareholders during his tenure there, incumbent Mayor Jamie Parsons declined to seek re-election in 1994 after one term in office. Mallott was elected mayor of Juneau in that municipalitys 1994 general election and he resigned the office a little over three months into his term, after he was chosen to head the APFC. Mallott faced harsh criticism when he announced that he could handle serving in both positions, leading to changing his mind and resigning the mayoral position

10.
Will and testament
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For the devolution of property not disposed of by will, see inheritance and intestacy. Thus, the word will validly applies to personal and real property. A will may also create a testamentary trust that is only after the death of the testator. Throughout most of the world, disposal of an estate has been a matter of social custom, according to Plutarch, the written will was invented by Solon. Originally it was a device intended solely for men who died without an heir, the English phrase will and testament is derived from a period in English law when Old English and Law French were used side by side for maximum clarity. Other such legal doublets include breaking and entering and peace and quiet, the conception of the freedom of disposition by will, familiar as it is in modern England and the United States, both generally considered common law systems, is by no means universal. In fact, complete freedom is the rather than the rule. Civil law systems often put some restrictions on the possibilities of disposal, advocates for gays and lesbians have pointed to the inheritance rights of spouses as desirable for same-sex couples as well, through same-sex marriage or civil unions. Opponents of such advocacy rebut this claim by pointing to the ability of same-sex couples to disperse their assets by will, types of wills generally include, nuncupative - oral or dictated, often limited to sailors or military personnel. Holographic will - written in the hand of the testator, in many jurisdictions, the signature, self-proved - in solemn form with affidavits of subscribing witnesses to avoid probate. Notarial - will in public form and prepared by a civil-law notary, servicemans will - will of person in active-duty military service and usually lacking certain formalities, particularly under English law. Reciprocal/mirror/mutual/husband and wife wills - wills made by two or more parties that make similar or identical provisions in favor of each other, unsolemn will - will in which the executor is unnamed. Will in solemn form - signed by testator and witnesses, some jurisdictions recognize a holographic will, made out entirely in the testators own hand, or in some modern formulations, with material provisions in the testators hand. The distinctive feature of a holographic will is less that it is handwritten by the testator, in Louisiana this type of testament is called an Olographic or Mystic will. It must be written, dated, and signed in the handwriting of the testator. Although the date may appear anywhere in the testament, the testator must sign the testament at the end of the testament, any additions or corrections must also be entirely hand written to have effect. In England, the formalities of wills are relaxed for soldiers who express their wishes on active service, a minority of jurisdictions even recognize the validity of nuncupative wills, particularly for military personnel or merchant sailors. However, there are constraints on the disposition of property if such an oral will is used

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